Generally, an individual conducting a purchase transaction receives a paper record that displays information about the transaction, such as the date of the transaction, the location of the transaction, items/services purchased in the transaction, and how the individual paid for the purchase. Should the individual wish to return a purchased item/service from that transaction for money, the individual must typically present the paper record they received of the transaction for the purposes of providing proof of the transaction, and/or necessary return details of the transaction. Requiring a customer to keep track of these paper records and present them in a refund transaction poses a nuisance to the customer that might discourage the customer from seeking a refund if they cannot find the proper paperwork.
Since retail stores are not required by law to provide customers with refund services, they may set their own refund policies. Because fraudulent refund transactions can pose a large area of risk, merchants typically enforce refund policies that help minimize these loss risks but still enable customers to return unwanted and/or defective merchandise. For example, such policies typically include requiring customers to present physical receipts for full refunds and to return purchased items within a set timeframe. Additionally, merchants often require customers conducting refund transactions to provide personal information, such as their home address, telephone number, and email address. Although paper receipts provide customers the benefit of allowing them to conduct full refunds, keeping track of these receipts is cumbersome for customers, forcing them to keep a backlog of paperwork on their purchases and then forcing them to find a receipt in that backlog every time they want to return an item/service. In addition, requiring customers to provide personal information is not only an inconvenience to customers but also an invasion of privacy. What is needed are better systems and methods for providing customers and merchants with records of purchase transactions.